A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

eagerly awaits the disclosure of his birth, believing that it will carry
with it some revelation that will end the t'disembodied lf 68 state which
troubles him. He hopes that it may help him "to make his life a sequence
233.
which (!il~
take the form of duty, /I that it will save him from "having
to make an arbitrary selection where he [!ee~ no preponderance of desire.
It 69 His state of mind here is very similar to those feelings
Maggie Tulliver dreads will assail her if she breaks the bonds of connection
to her past and disturbs, as it were, the sequence. She feels it
will destroy her sense of identity; Deronda, for all his moral sensitivity
to the sufferings of others, is having trouble establishing any
sense of identity at all in the faoe of his uncertainty about his parentage.
Maggie fears to destroy her roots, Deronda is an::dously seeking his.
But his indecision and reticence paralyse him; in that he can no more
tackle Sir Hugo squarely as to the question of his parentage than he can
commit himself to some oourse of work.
This is his state of mind when he comes into contact with Mordecai,
who functions as Deronda t s spiritual mentor just as Deronda is Qwendolen's.
The first real communication between the two men has been subtly prepared
for. Deronda's mortification at the earlier abrupt cessation of
Mordecai's interest in him once he states that he is not a Jew, and
knows no Hebrew, is akin to Gwendolen's tremulous sense of inadequacy
under his s:earching gaze at Leubronn. Accordingly, Deronda is partially
reaqy to respond to Mordecai, and in addition, Mordecai is offering him
the possibility of just the sort of commitment for which his soul is
thirsting. The follOwing remark about J;leronda is indicative of his prior
acceptance of Mordecai' s visi onary claim on him. "But the moment had· in- " )
fluences which were not only new but solemn to Deronda: any evasion here
might turn out to be a hateful refusal of some task that belonged to him,
some act of ~ fellowship. /I
70 (lI\Y italics) It is interesting to re-